The memory of squandering a lead that was nearly Ravens-over-Niners-sized might fade, considering the end result was super.

Then again, Vernon Hills girls basketball team might not want to forget what happened in the second half of Wednesday nights North Suburban Conference championship game at Zion-Benton.

The Cougars watched a 16-point lead vanish faster than you can say Colin Kaepernick.

It was a weird feeling to kind of have it slip for a second, Vernon Hills center Meri Bennett-Swanson said. But I think we showed why we cant do that. Going forward, we can look back and say, Hey, remember that Zion-Benton game when we lost it for a second and they jumped on us? 

What Vernon Hills will remember is how it overcame a shaky second half to pull off a historic victory.

By edging Zion-Benton 51-50, the Cougars became the first Prairie Division team to win the NSC title game, which has been contested since 2001.

I think its awesome for our division and also for our program to be the pioneers of this feat, said Bennett-Swanson, who scored 15 points on 7-of-14 shooting and collected 5 rebounds. Its an amazing accomplishment.

Lauren Webb poured in a game-high 20 points and grabbed 7 rebounds for Vernon Hills (25-2), which lost to Libertyville in last years conference-championship game. The Cougars had never played in the title game prior to last season.

Its just really good to bring it to the Prairie side once, said coach Paul Brettner, whose team, like Lake-champ Zion-Benton (17-7), went 12-0 in its division.

Vernon Hills built a 15-6 lead after one quarter, and with Zion-Benton center Syerra Cunningham sitting on the bench with 2 fouls in the second quarter, the Cougars took advantage. They went up by as many as 17 points before settling for a 25-11 halftime advantage.

When Bennett-Swanson finished a feed from Brie Bahlmann, the Cougars led 31-15 with 5:46 left in the third. Zion-Benton then, finally, heated up. The Zee-Bees went on a 12-0 run to get within 31-27.

I knew Cunningham would come back with a vengeance, Brettner said. We didnt get a big enough lead with her on the bench.

Cunningham, who had scored all of the Zee-Bees points in the first quarter, scored 3 baskets on post-up moves in the third quarter. By quarters end, the home team was within 37-33 after outscoring the Cougars 22-12.

What sparked the turnaround was Coach Johnson, Cunningham said of Z-B coach Tanya Johnson. If you notice anything, shes a screamer. She was on us, like, We missed these box-outs. She said, I can only coach. You guys got to play. It was either we listen to her scream for the next half-hour, or we go out there and play. We got turnovers. We got steals. We got buckets. Everybody was into it.

Kaitlyn Stabenow included. The Zee-Bees guard scored 10 of her team-high 18 points, including two of her four 3-pointers, in the third quarter.

She sparked us, too, said Cunningham, who finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds. She hit a couple of 3s and that just gave us (confidence) to go to the hole, get those buckets and get those free throws.

With Vernon Hills determined to limit Cunningham, that left Stabenow open.

They knew that we were preventing the ball from getting in to (No.) 33 (Cunningham), because she was obviously a threat, Webb said. They started kicking it out, and thats when they started making a lot of their 3s. That was a big problem.

Zion-Benton took a 45-42 lead on Stabenows left-corner 3 with 3:36 left in the fourth and later led 47-46. But Webbs putback with 2:03 left snapped a 47-47 tie. Samantha Rodriguez (10 points, 4 steals) sank a clutch 3-pointer with 16 seconds left to trim Vernon Hills lead to 51-50.

The Cougars 11th turnover of the second half gave Zion-Benton one last chance, but Rodriguezs running 3 was off-target at the buzzer.

Vernon Hills made just 5 of 15 free throws in the final quarter. Sydney Smith (8 points, 10 rebounds, 3 steals) went an uncharacteristic 1 of 7 from the line. Webb missed 4 free throws in the fourth.

Its nice that we missed all those free throws, Brettner said with a smile, just to keep the crowd interested.